The Very Last Companion
by Heavens-spirit
Summary: The Doctor always outlived his companions. He loves them all and they love him, but it never lasts. Is he doomed to love and lose till the universe ends? All his adventures starts with a mystery and an extraordinary human and Eleanor Tatham is plenty of both, but why did the Tardis choose to chrash-land in her shower in the first place? Post Amy & Rory


**The 11****th**** doctor is my favourite doctor, I guess because of his craziness. A big theme in the series is how incredible being a time traveller is – and how lonely, so I wanted to give him a new and perhaps the last companion. After Amy and Rory but before Clara. **

"What's the matter with you today?" He asked the blue box as it made all sorts of sounds you do not want to hear from a tardis and shuddered so he had to fight to stay on his feet. "Why are you acting out?"

As usual, the tardis only answered him with silence (and loud explosive noises), before she made a bumpy crash-landing in an unspecified location. It knocked him on his ass and the Doctor patted his soar behind as he rose to assess the damage.

The control-board sent little bright sparks into the air and a rosy smoke. He swiftly reached for the sonic screwdriver in his pocket and began scanning the panel.

"You and I have to have a serious talk, sexy," he called as he read the screwdriver's signal. "Timelord to timemachine, you haven't exactly been reliable lately, and as much as I enjoy our small detours, I can't let you go wherever you want to." He ran down the stairs and started randomly rearranging the messy lump of cables. "I _know_ you have needs, but what about me? I cannot invite a new companion on board when you won't let me go where I want to go. A timelord who can't steer his tardis isn't much of a timelord, yes?"

The tardis crackled in response.

"You are impossible." The Doctor dismissed and stepped back. "Will you just work out your issues and I'll go see where you brought us this time." He pointed his finger at the machine like an irritated husband and marched up to the door. "And it better not be another Macra nest. Sometimes I feel like you are trying to get rid of me," he sniffled and then swung open the door.

He had 'parked' inside a bathroom, in the shower no less, of a seemingly ordinary apartment, definitely human. The very bright orange wallpaper had him thinking he landed in the 70'es but a tablet lying on the loo lid with an open game of angry birds led him to the conclusion that he was in the early 21st century. He stepped into the small room and noticed himself in the mirror. _Bowties are cool_, he thought energetically and started towards the door leading into the hallway. It never bothered him that he often landed in private homes, although he tried to avoid it. Landing your time machine inside someone's house was rude, but it was a good way to meet new people.

The wooden floor creaked beneath him as he strolled casually through the hall. The first room to the left was a living room. One could not, in good conscience, describe it as orderly, but it did strike him as homely. There was an abundance of clocks on the wall, all different shapes and sizes, none of which showed the same time. Their ticking was almost melodious. Huge windows let in the morning sunlight and shone on two puffy armchairs and a coffee table littered with books. The resident obviously did not care about minimalistic design because not a piece of furniture in the room matched. Normally he would not notice something like that, but it was a radiant mess of colours and strange stuff.

Just then, a girl with chestnut brown hair and dark blue eyes came walking through the apartment. She was wearing a t-shirt, snoopy-knickers and thick woolen socks. At first, she focused thoroughly on brushing her teeth while reading the newspaper, but she stopped in her tracks when he cleared his throat.

"Good morning," the Doctor greeted her with his cheeriest voice.

For a few seconds she had the common stunned expression of any person ever to receive one of his unexpected visits. He always enjoyed this part. Meeting new people. New meetings had the potential of mystery and excellence.

"I am the…"

"Doctor! How wonderful to see you," the girl exclaimed with overwhelming familiarity.

Now it was his turn to be stunned. He was fairly certain that he had never seen this girl in all his lives and here she was, acting like his crash-landing was a daily occurrence. "I'm sorry, have we met?"

She laughed loudly and pushed past him to get to the bathroom. "You nutter, always speaking like a madman." The girl spat the remainder of toothpaste into the sink and returned to give him a light hug. He was too astonished to reciprocate. "So where are you taking me this time? You usually never pick me up at home? Anyway, I was thinking that amasing volcanic planet, what was it Domm you said it was called? I would like to go see the eruption of the green super volcano. You keep talking about it, but you never actually take me there. You tease." She winked at him and ran to another room. "In all honesty, I am a little surprised to see you," she continued, while rummaging loudly about.

"_You_'re surprised?" the Doctor spoke, mostly to himself. Was this another case of the River Song scenario? Maybe they would meet in his future?

"Yes, it is the strangest time of day to show up, but I could use some space time right about now, so I am not complaining."

"You're complaining a little bit," he remarked, not sure what to make of this girl.

"Well yes, but you know me."

"Not really."

"There you go again with the silliness." The girl emerged from the room, now fully clothed. She had her hair in a pair of braided pigtails, skinny jeans and oversized boots. "Come on, Doctor. I only have a few hours. Let's go, let's go, let's go!"

She pushed him back towards the bathroom.

"You're a bossy one," he said. The girl seemed to know him well enough.

She directed him straight to the Tardis, as if it wasn't weird at all that a blue phonebooth was sitting in her shower.

He put his hand on his precious tardis. "I am not sure she's ready to go just now. We had a minor disagreement and she is repairing."

"Nonsense." The girl opened the door and stepped in.

The Doctor watched for her reaction, but the girl acted like she was in her own house. A bit disappointing, actually.

There was no sign that Tardis still misbehaved. In fact, she almost purred like a kitten when the girl tapped the panel. "Looks like we are ready to go. Do you want to set the course or shall I?"

He leaned back against the railing and made a sweeping gesture of his hand. _This could be interesting_. "By all means, miss. The helm is yours." Obviously she wouldn't be able to steer the Tardis.

She quickly proved him wrong. With a few twists and pulls of levers and buttons, the time machine gently took off from the bathroom shower and into the time vortex. The girl moved about the control panel without any hurry in her enormous boots and the Tardis did her bidding silently.

"Now you are just trying to make me jealous," he whispered at the machine, as if the box was a traitor.

"Did you say anything, Doctor?"

"Yes. Enough of this. Who are you?"

"No, you are who, Doctor." She giggled at her own wittiness. "But since you insist on playing this game…" the girl turned to him and took a bow. "Miss Eleanor Tatham. Now will you quit it? You have known me since I was a baby – highly irresponsible to bring a baby into a time machine, I might add." She lifted an eyebrow before returning to the control panel. "I shall be very offended if you have lost your memory all of a sudden with all we have been through together. Did you do something new with the control room?" she asked, in her long continuous stream of words.

Who was this Eleanor!? "You tell me."

She scanned the room slowly and her eyes landed on a little red light on the panel. "Oh, you finally changed that dull light bulb. About time."

The Doctor felt increasingly puzzled. He had changed the light just a few hours before the crash-landing in the vigorous young lady's shower. How could she know something like that if he only met her in the future? "Eleanor..." he began.

"Ellie! You always call me Ellie. What is the matter with you?" She walked to him and placed her hands on his cheeks, studying him carefully.

"As I have been trying to tell you… Ellie, I _don't_ remember you. Is it possible we haven't met yet?"

Eleanor took a step back, looking very hurt. "No, it's not. Do you not remember? Like the time Rose ingested the matrix? Or when we lost Amy and Rory? That was such a sad day."

The Doctor shook his head, confused. "But you weren't there on that day!"

"I most certainly was! This isn't funny, Doctor."

"I am inclined to agree. How could you possibly remember something that you weren't present to see?" His mind began wrapping itself around the enigma. Clearly, the girl remembered intimate details about his life and several companions and regenerations. How? How? How?

"You are never mean to me, Doctor. Why would you say something like that?" Her mouth twisted. She fully believed that she had followed him all these years. "You are the most important man in my life, and now you don't even recognise me? That is cruel."

Her eyes watered and his two hearts had never been able to deny a sad human. "Come come… Ellie. I am sure we can find an explanation for all this." The Doctor gave her a tight hug and a comforting smile. "After all, I am the Doctor."

Eleanor grimaced nervously. "Yes you are. This is all just so weird." She pulled back and put her arms around herself. Then she send him a searching look.

"What?" he asked.

"You hug weird."

"I hug weird? I have never been accused of that before."

The girl seemed much more wary now. They stared at each other for a long while, none of them finding anything appropriate to say. To the Doctor this girl was a stranger – an exciting mysterious stranger – but a stranger nonetheless.

Tardis made the usual landing sound and Eleanor broke their trancelike staring. "Maybe you should just take me home then."

The Doctor drove his fingers through his hair. "No, no. We have come this far. What kind of Doctor would I be if I didn't take a peek outside now that we are here?"

"You would definitely not be yourself then." Eleanor smiled like she recognized him all over again and he smiled back.

"True. Right then. To the green volcano!" He darted over to the closet to get his lava protection suit. In reality, he preferred planets where he could flash his dashing fashion sense, but lava planets rarely had any creatures to dazzle. "Where did I put it?"

"I'll see you out there," Eleanor called from the door.

"Wait what?!" As he looked up, he saw her opening the door as in slow motion and he got on his feet and ran for her. The moment the door swung open, a searing hot air burst into the room. It felt like his bones was going to melt and Eleanor flew backwards towards him. The scorching air simmered through the tardis and he fought against the heavy wave of heat to get to the door. The girl lay motionless on the floor. It seemed like an eternity before he reached the doorknob and had to use all his strength to force it closed.

The temperature quickly restored to normal inside the control room. "Oh Eleanor, why would you do that?" How could she know so much about him and then not know that lava planets required protection?

Her skin was flushed and slightly burned, but by falling to the floor she had dodged the worst of the heat. His own bowtie was black around the edges and his hair that had grown so long was now considerably shorter. "Ellie… Where did you come from?" Gently he crouched down and put a finger against her neck. There was a strong pulse. She wasn't too badly injured then.

As she lay there, he suddenly had a quiet moment to study her closer. She was young, maybe a little older than Amy when she began travelling with him. Twenty-five perhaps? _Have we really met before?_ The Doctor tried as hard as he could, to remember if he had seen her face before, but without success. There was perhaps something familiar about her, but it might just be the fact that she had an attitude like so many of his former companions.

Eleanor stirred and blinked against the lights in the ceiling. "What happened?"

"You decided to run right out into a lava storm. And I was beginning to think you were a clever one."

"I _am_ clever, you rude boy. This doesn't normally happen to me," she frowned. Her fingers found the burned spots of skin on her cheeks. "Ouch! That hurts."

"You sound surprised. Why?"

"Dreams can't hurt like this, can they?"

_Of course, _he thought. _Actually, not an obvious 'of course', but definitely an 'AHA!'_ "You think you are dreaming."

"Yes. The same dream I always dream every time I close my eyes, for as long as I remember. I don't remember ever getting hurt though."

"What _do_ you remember? Did I ever hug you?"

She thought for a while, then her eyes widened. "No... You never hug me. And you hug everyone all the time. You are a regular hug addict."

"That's a very strong word," he frowned. "I don't hug all the time."

"But you never hugged me. Not until today. That is why it felt so weird. But you talk to me! All the time."

"What do I say to you?"

A charming pink colour suddenly washed all over her face. "You… call me sexy."

The Doctor sighed. She was not going to be happy to hear the truth.

"What!?" she demanded.

"I don't talk to you. I don't call you sexy, because I did not even know you were there. It's the tardis. I talk to my tardis."

The realisation spread like a wave of horror on her features. "All this time… You never saw me? All that I have experience with you, and I was really experiencing it all on my own…"

"Actually," he said. "You've been dreaming it all on your own. You have been dreaming my life, for some reason.

"I knew it was a dream, but I thought for sure that we were in it together." A new startling realisation appeared in her eyes. "But if I was dreaming before, and now we are hugging and talking… then this must be real?"

The Doctor poked her gently on the burns, making her wince. "Very real, miss Tatham."

"But, but, you, you… Oh god!" she exclaimed before dramatically passing out.

_Finally,_ he thought. It had almost made him upset, not getting the usual 'it's bigger on the inside' comments. Although passing out was a bit over the top. He had never had one of those before.

While waiting for her to wake up, he had plenty of time to ponder this new turn of events. How did an ordinary girl start dreaming his reality? Time travel was not healthy for the mind or the body. It became fragmented and scared. Perhaps somewhere along the line a piece of him had unhinged itself and attached itself to her. No matter the course this was not a good omen.

When Eleanor came to, he was sure that an investigation had to be made. As he could not cross his own timeline and see if something happened there, he would have to search hers.

"This is overwhelming," Eleanor said as she sat op. "You are real. My Doctor is real and then you are not really mine at all." She looked utterly defeated.

"Cheer up, Ellie. Aren't you the least glad to know I actually exist?" the Doctor asked and helped her on her feet.

"Yes, I am," she smiled tenderly. "I am very happy that you exist. What will happen now? If I dream about you like this it must mean that there is a tear in the fabric of time."

He looked at her surprised and a little impressed.

"I told you I have been following you closely," Eleanor said in response to his look.

"I can tell. You are a very weird phenomenon miss Tatham."

She sighed. "That is what I am to you now? A weird phenomenon."

"Fortunately, I _love_ the weird," the Doctor exclaimed and gave her an impulsive kiss on the hand. "But if it is a tear in the fabric of time it could be dangerous for the entire universe. I have to close it."

"Of course you do," she agreed, but then turned sad again. "I know I can't go with you, timeline crossing and all that, so you will be taking me home now I guess."

"Yes." He could tell that she would rather stay and actually, he would like her to stay on board also. He never could figure out what exactly appealed to him when he chose his companions, but whatever _IT_ was, Eleanor Tatham had it.

"When you close the rift, will forget everything? I have known you since forever and I am not sure I know how to live without you."

The honest confession made him hug her again. Perhaps she was right. He was addicted to a good hug, but if that was wrong, he didn't want to be right. _Hugs are cool._ "I am not sure what will happen to your memories about me, but you won't dream of me anymore."

"I figured as much. I really am pretty clever, you know."

"I never doubted that," he smiled truthfully. "And in compensation I might offer you some really real expeditions in the tardis, once I close the rift." He said it teasingly with a completely neutral expression and her reaction was priceless.

Eleanor jumped into the air and flung her arms around his neck, whilst making a most girlish celebratory sound. "Oh Doctor, thank you!"

"I do have a condition though."

"Anything!"

"Remember that you are not immortal. You can die now that you are here, and I have lost enough companions to carelessness." His voice had an involuntary note of worry to it, and he tried shaking it off.

The girl simply took his hand and looked him deep in the eye. "My Doctor. I know what you have lost. I have felt it and in spite of everything, I have seen I would still love to be here with you. To gain even the smallest minute of your time is a privilege."

Her profound and heartfelt talk moved him greatly. He was undeserving of such devotion with all the pain he had cost the people closest to him, but he could not deny that it softened his hearts. _Oh I am such an old softy, _he scolded himself. _These humans never seize to amaze me._

…

So the Doctor brought Eleanor Tatham home to her apartment. Dream-invader or not, she could fly the Tardis like a pro. As she stepped into the bathroom, she turned to say goodbye.

"So Doctor, I must admit that I never imagined all my dreams were real, but I am glad they are."

"If anyone was to invade my reality when they are sleeping, you are not the shabbiest of choices," he grinned.

She huffed in false offence. Then she grew serious. "I know Amy Pond waited a long time, when you had promised her to return."

"Ehm… yes.. not my finest hour," he admitted and recalled the wrathful face of Amy when he finally returned.

"If you miss again, or something goes wrong and I won't remember you or even follow you when you come… I just wanted to say: Good day Doctor. It's very nice to finally meet you."

"And it is very nice to meet you, Eleanor Tatham. I'll be seeing you shortly." He began closing the door, but then hurried to open it back up and add: "you know, relatively shortly."

She laughed at him. "I know."

**For now this is just a One-shot, as I haven't got the time to write it (and I still have to finish my vampire diaires story), but I have a whole big plot worked out, so maybe if you guys like it, I'll hurry up and finish my exams and write more on this story. **


End file.
